TeledyN - All your Heritage are belong to Bill - Comments

some words of encouragement and

mrG — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 18:46:52 -0500

some words of encouragement and a possible Canadian course for action by way of an email from Carolyn Sidnell ...

Subject: Your Recent Post Re: Folkways Recordings
To: garym
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 11:12:45 -0800

Hello Gary,

When I came across your recent post, All your heritage are belong to Bill, regarding the deal struck up between the Smithsonian & MSN Music, something niggled at the back of mind. Upon thinking about it later I remembered I'd heard a CBC radio interview sometime in the last year or so regarding a legacy & connection between the University of Alberta & the Folkways recordings. Sure enough, after searching through the U of A website, I discovered a January 28/05 U of A Express News item, Website will enhance Folkways collection, I found what I was looking for: folkways Alive!

As you'll see, there is definitely a very strong Canadian connection
which perhap, therefore, presents you with a legitimate Canadian
angle/avenue for a protest against the aforementioned deal.

Hope you find this both interesting & useful.

Cheers,
Carolyn

And my thanks to Carolyn for this; I immediately dispatched a letter to the directors of said project to beg their assistance in any way they can, trying my best to explain the severity of the situation without sounding like a raving lunatic (which isn't easy, especially for me)

I will keep you all appraised of my progress ...

Smithsonian locks blues, bluegrass, jazz classics in M*crosoft t

Roland Tanglao's Weblog (trackback) — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 15:23:34 -0500

Not good. From TeledyN: All your Heritage are belong to Bill.: QUOTEWhat does it mean? It means this much for certain: I clicked on the link to the archive and was immediately redirected to the terse and unyielding Statement of...

The Criminally Unconventional

TeledyN (trackback) — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:45:26 -0500

I don't feel so bad now: When I tried to respond to a call for volunteers for a tsunami relief agency, I was only denied access or any means of contact for my wrong choice of browser vendor. From what Cory relates, it could have been much worse ...

Microsoft means e-exclusion (also in music)

Paolo Massa Blog (trackback) — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 05:15:59 -0500

(via TeledyN) An alliance announced today between MSN Music and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will make tens of thousand of historic songs from legendary performers of folk, blues, jazz and world music available online for the first time, allowing music fans...

All your Heritage are belong to Bill

mrG — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 21:12:06 -0500

Do you remember that scene in The Graduate where he bangs on the glass with that terrible scream of hopeless dispair? As soon as I saw the TLA in the partnership pairing, my heart sank into a blank darkness of just such a powerless rile -- if any of you dear readers are citizens of that country and have an address you can write or call, please, please please, you have to get this corrected:

An alliance announced today between MSN Music and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will make tens of thousand of historic songs from legendary performers of folk, blues, jazz and world music available online for the first time, allowing music fans to discover a diverse world of music and sound. The Smithsonian Folkways catalog of nearly 35,000 tracks, which is only available for download through MSN(R) Music in the United States
[ via MSN Music Makes Historic Songs From Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Available Online for the First Time ]

What does it mean? It means this much for certain: I clicked on the link to the archive and was immediately redirected to the terse and unyielding Statement of Requirements which begin just as my dispairing silent scream had feared. Do keep in mind, this isn't just the complete archival recordings of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lucinda Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins and Ella Jenkins which are now predicated Microsoft MediaPlayer as the cost of the experience, but this is also the primary American collection of speeches, poetry and natural sounds.